Who is the top male tennis performer in season 2009?

2009 is the year Roger Federer will always remember. It is in 2009 that he won his first French Open to tie with Great Pete and then Wimbledon Open to became the greatest male tennis player of all time, proud holder of 15 Grand Slam titles.

2009 is the year Rafael Nadal will want to forget. Starting the season well enough to win the Australian Open, most fans are expecting him to do a clean sweep of 2009 Grand Slam. Struggling with injuries in parts of the season, he failed to defend his French Open title. He also lost his number one position in ATP ranking to Roger.

So is Federer the top performer based on his achievement and where does Nadal stand?
.... Lets go through the facts...

(We will only look at the top 10 ranked players as the top performer has to be from there isn't it?)

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First up, lets  look at the season total of the top ten players:

1) Federer - Total Match 73 -  Win: 61 Lost: 12 (Win%: 83.56%)
2) Nadal - Total Match 78 - Win 64 Lost 14 (Win%: 82.05%)
3) Djokovic - Total Match 97 - Win 78 Lost 19 (Win%: 80.41%)
4) Murray - Total Match 77 - Win 66 Lost 11 (Win%: 85.71%)
5) Del Potro - Total Match 70 - Win 54 Lost 16 (Win%: 77.14%)
6) Davydenko - Total Match 74 - Win 57 Lost 17 (Win%: 77.03%)
7) Roddick - Total Match 63 - Win 48 Lost 15 (Win%: 76.19%)
8) Soderling - Total Match 70 - Win 49 Lost 21 (Win%: 70.00%)
9) Verdasco - Total Match 77 - Win 52 Lost 25 (Win%: 67.53%)
10) Tsonga - Total Match 73 - Win 53 Lost 20 (Win%: 72.60%)

- Andy Murray has the highest winning percentage at 85.71% from 77 games while Verdasco has the lowest at 67.53% from the same number of games.

- Djokovic played 97 games and Roddick only 63 while the rest of the top 10 average 70+ games each.

- Nadal lost his last four games of the season  (lost ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Paris's semi-final against Djokovic, lost all 3 round robin matches in Barclays ATP World Tour Finals to Soderling, Davydenko and Djokovic again). to finish with 14 losses all season.

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Next we look at the number of titles each player won in 2009.

1) Federer - 4 titles from 19 tournaments (include 2 Grand Slam: French and Wimbledon)
2) Nadal - 5 titles from 19 tournaments (include 1 Grand Slam: Australian)
3) Djokovic - 5 titles from 23 tournaments
4) Murray - 6 titles from 19 tournaments
5) Del Potro -3 titles from 22 tournaments (include 1 Grand Slam: US)
6) Davydenko -5 titles from 26 tournaments (include Barclays ATP World Tour Finals)
7) Roddick - 1 title from 20 tournaments
8) Soderling -1 title from 27 tournaments
9) Verdasco - 1 title from 24 tournaments
10) Tsonga - 3 titles from 26 tournaments

- Soderling played the most tournaments (27) and won 1 title.

- Murray, tied with Federer and Nadal, played the least tournaments (19) and won 6 titles, the most among the top 10 players.

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Lastly lets look at head-to-head between the top 10 players.

1) Federer - Total Match 28 -  Win: 18 Lost: 10 (Win%: 64.29%)
2) Nadal - Total Match 28 - Win 16 Lost 12 (Win%: 57.14%)
3) Djokovic - Total Match 27 - Win 14 Lost 13 (Win%: 51.85%)
4) Murray - Total Match 21 - Win 14 Lost 7 (Win%: 66.67%)
5) Del Potro - Total Match 22 - Win 13 Lost 9 (Win%: 59.10%)
6) Davydenko - Total Match 16 - Win 9 Lost 7 (Win%: 56.25%)
7) Roddick - Total Match 13 - Win 5 Lost 8 (Win%: 38.46%)
8) Soderling - Total Match 19 - Win 7 Lost 12 (Win%: 36.84%)
9) Verdasco - Total Match 17 - Win 2 Lost 15 (Win%: 11.76%)
10) Tsonga - Total Match 73 - Win 2 Lost 7 (Win%: 22.22%)

- Federer won the most head-to-head (18) ad his winning percentage is 64.29%, slightly behind the highest of 66.67% achieved by Murray.

- Verdasco lost 15 of his 17 against the top 10 and his winning percentage of 11.76% is the lowest.

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Well, there you have it. Who is the top male tennis player of 2009? You decide.  ... ... For me, its a tie between Federer and Murray.

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New "Jeer-zzz" Nets worst NBA Team ever?

It must be said that this NBA season is looking to be one unpredictable one with defending champion LA Lakers looking strong again with the addition of Ron Artest.

Hoping to snatch the title from them are a number of chasing packs in the likes of Phoenix Suns, Boston Celtics (both teams having a fully fit team), Orlando Magic (Vince Carter is showing his worth), and of course not to discount Cleveland Cavaliers (although we have yet to see the fruits with the addition of Big Shaq).

But I am going to focus on the worst team in the NBA right now - New Jeer-zzz Nets... I mean New Jersey Nets.

As of 1 Dec 09, the Nets are 0-17 to start the season which tied the worst ever start in NBA history set by Miami Heat in 1988-89. Although the 88-89 Heat team went on to finish the season at 15-67, this current Nets team is seriously threatening to break the worst NBA Record of 9-73 set by Philadelphia 76ers way back in 72-73 season. (76ers of 72-73 started the season at 1-16.)

Yes, Nets management and fans can blame it on the fact that half of the team are down or struggling with injuries but the prospect does not look good. Their next match is up against Dallas Mavericks who is at 13-5. Ironically they have to stop Jason Kidd who is their former captain from dishing out the assists to Big Dirk.

Can the current thin and young squad finally win to prevent setting a new record? I don't think so. The facts said so.

1) Nets lost 6 of their 7 pre-season games. Winning only the last warm-up game against 76ers.
2) Nets lost 11 of their 17 games by double digits, as much as by 28 points against the Nuggets.
3) Their closest games are against Heat (lost by 1), the Wolves (lost by 2), 76ers (lost twice by 3) and all 3 opposing teams are not starting well to their season.
4) Lost all against their closest rivals for worst record this season (Wolves 2-15, Knicks 4-14, 76ers (lost twice) 5-13)

How the Nets fans must be wishing for their former stars still be in the team... ... Jason Kidd, Richard Jefferson, Vince Carter, Kenyon Martins.

Will this awful run ever end? God Knows. For us, we have to wait and see... ...

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World Cup Soccer: Most Under Performing Football Nation goes to ... ... ...

Most of you must be thinking the answer is England, the nation that created football. Well... I shall not reveal the result till we go through some facts first. Lets start... ...

First we list down the top 10 nations from the latest FIFA World Ranking (as of 20 Nov 2009)

1. Spain
2. Brazil
3. Netherlands
4. Italy
5. Portugal
6. Germany
7. France
8. Argentina
9. England
10. Croatia

Out of the above 10 nations, 6 nations have won the World Cup. In fact, all 18 previous World Cup winners are covered in the top 10 of latest FIFA ranking.

Lets go deeper...

(Note: *+1 means qualified for 2010 World Cup Finals)

1. SPAIN    12+1* WC appearances, 1 x Fourth (1950)      

2. BRAZIL     18+1 WC appearances, 5 x Winners (1958, 1962, 1970, 1994, 2002), 2 x Runner-up (1950, 1998), 2 x Third (1938, 1978), 1 x Fourth (1974)

3. NETHERLANDS    8+1 WC appearances, 2 x Runner-up (1974, 1978), 1 x Fourth (1998)

4. ITALY    16+1 WC appearances, 4 x Winners (1934, 1938, 1982, 2006), 2 x Runner-up (1970, 1994), 1 x Third (1990), 1 x Fourth (1978)

5. PORTUGAL    4+1 WC appearances, 1 x Third (1966), 1 x Fourth (2006)

6. GERMANY    16+1 WC appearances, 3 x Winners (1954, 1974, 1990), 4 x Runner-up (1966, 1982, 1986, 2002), 3 x Third (1934, 1970, 2006), 1 x Fourth (1958)


7. FRANCE    12+1 WC appearances, 1 x Winner (1998), 1 x Runner-up (2006), 2 x Third (1958, 1986), 1 x Fourth (1982)


8. ARGENTINA    14+1 WC appearances, 2 x Winners (1978, 1986), 2 x Runner-up (1930, 1990)

9. ENGLAND    12+1 WC appearances, 1 x Winner (1966), 1 x Fourth (1990)

10. CROATIA    3 WC appearances, 1 x Third (1998)


From the above, we can easily see that Spain (Yes.. Spain) is under-performing in the world stage. Their only top 4 finish is way back in 1950. As the current EURO Cup holder, everyone is having high hopes on Spain to finally deliver at 2010 edition.

Their recent results and records speaks something...
1) Their recent 5-1 win over Austria is their 8th win in a row and 23rd in 24 matches.
2) Spain currently holds the world record for most consecutive wins at 15 (2008-2009)
3) Spain currently holds the most consecutive games undefeated at 35 (2007-2009) (shared with Brazil between 1993-1996), winning 32 of them.

 With the likes of Fernando Torres, David Villa, Cesc Fabregas, Xavi Alonso, Andres Iniesta, Iker Casillas in the ranks this time round, this is surely the strongest Spanish side of all-time. Can this current squad go on to win in the big stage just like their famous clubs Real Madrid and Barcelona? Will the real Spanish team please stand up?

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